As the Russia probe widens, White House aides are pointing fingers at Trump’s former campaign chair: ‘There is no trust… There never really was any to begin with.’

The Trumpeters have openly turned on Manafort, but the undercurrents are hard to read from the outside.

Either:

The Enquirer story and West Wing leaks were a warning shot at Manafort, forcing him to swap his lawyers (who may have been looking for a deal) with a team more to the Trumpeter’s liking (stonewall, deny and delay instead of deal).

Or

The Trumpeters have decided to cut Manafort loose and use him as a scapegoat, and the change of lawyers is Manafort moving to a less Trump-loyal firm.

The Enquirer story and West Wing leaks were a warning shot at Manafort, forcing him to swap his lawyers (who may have been looking for a deal) with a team more to the Trumpeter’s liking (stonewall, deny and delay instead of deal).

Or

The Trumpeters have decided to cut Manafort loose and use him as a scapegoat, and the change of lawyers is Manafort moving to a less Trump-loyal firm.

Or option 3:

One_Brown_Mouse:

In Russian reality hack, counsel drops you

I’m a bit reminded of The Maltese Falcon, where Wilmer is being lined up as the designated fall guy.
(The difference being that most of the characters in The Maltese Falcon had class, as opposed to - ah, why even go there.)

Miller & Chevalier’s Richard Hibey has previously represented Manafort. His other clients have included CIA officer Clair George, who was convicted in 1992 of making false statements to Congress about the Reagan administration’s secret arms sales to Iran.

You can act for people who are guilty. You can act for people you think are guilty. You can act for people you are convinced are guilty.

You are not supposed to put forward a defence of ‘I didn’t do it’ for someone who told you he did.

I will say that it seems that you don’t get to be a big-shot lawyer with the multi-million dollar income without running those pesky ethical requirements as close to the line as possible if not right over it.